Police officer testifies in George Zimmerman trial

UP IN JUST A FEW MINUTES. THANK YOU. NOW TO THE ZIMMERMAN TRIAL AND TODAY WE HEARD ZIMMERMAN IN A WAY TESTIFY. LAUREN IS LIVE OUTSIDE THE COURTHOUSE AND LAUREN THE JURY GOT TO HEAR ZIMMERMAN SIDE OF THE STORY IN HIS OWN WORDS. YES SEVERAL TIMES IN FACT ERIC. COUPLE OF DIFFERENT RECORDINGS PLAYED FOR THE JURY. SOME AUDIO AND SOME VIDEO. IN FACT JURY'S SAW THE VIDEO OF ZIMMERMAN WALKING DETECTIVES THROUGH WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT THE NIGHT THAT TRAYVON MARTIN ATTACKED HIT. WE ALSO HEARD FROM 2 DETECTIVES IN THE CASE. STANFORD POLICE OFFICER SINGLETON WHO WAS THE FIRST TO ACTUALLY INTERVIEW GEORGE ZIMMERMAN AND CHRIS WHO BECAME THE LEAD DETECTIVE IN THIS CA THE LEAD DETECTIVE IN THIS CASE. IN FACT WE JUST LEFT THE COURTROOM WHERE HE WAS STILL BEING CROSS EXAMINE INKED BY MARCO MARROW. NOW WE HAVE THE DEVELOPMENT TODAY. THIS WAS GOING TO BE THE STATE STRONGEST DAY POSSIBLY. THIS IS THE LEAD DETECTIVE IN THE CASE. RIGHT. WHEN THEY WERE GOING TO BE ABLE TO SHOW THE DIFFERENT INTERVIEW OF ZIMMERMAN AND POSSIBLY COME UP WITHIN CONSISTENT. YES ZIMMERMAN OF COURSE DOESN'T HAVE TO TESTIFY IN THIS TRIAL SO WHAT THE STATE DID TODAY WAS IN EFFECT HAVE HIM TESTIFY THROUGH THE STATEMENTS TO SINGLETON AND CHRIS THE 2 DETECTIVES AT THE HEAD OF THE INVESTIGATION. AND AS A RESULT THE JURY HEARD A DIFFERENT GEORGE ZIMMERMAN. SOMEONE WHO IS CHALLENGED. WHO WAS HAVING SOME DISCREPANCY IN WHAT HE WAS SAYING AND AFTER WHAT HE SAW IN COURT TODAY GEORGE ZIMMERMAN MAY HAVE WISHED HE DID REMAIN SILENT. TODAY WAS THE DAY ZIMMERMAN MAY WISHING HE INVOKED HIS TRITE REMAIN SILENT. AND PROSECUTOR IS EAGER TO HIGHLIGHT EVERY DISCREPANCY. P.E. TRADE TO SHOW HOW ZIMMERMAN MINIMIZE HIS DECISIONS. THAT LED TO TRAYVON MARTIN SHOOTING. I WAS JUST POINTING IN THE SAME DIRECTION HE WAS. Reporter: FINALLY WHEN HE CAME TO THOSE SCREAMS. SOUND LIKE A MALE YOU DON'T KNOW WHY. NO. I DON'T KNOW WHY. Reporter: ONCE AGAIN JURORS HEARD WHAT IS NOW ZIMMERMAN FAMILIAR SELF-DEFENSE CLAIM. HE BANG MY HEAD AGAIN I JUST PULLED OUT MY FIREARM AND SHOT HIM. Reporter: BUT THEY ALSO HEARD THE LEAD INVESTIGATORS CHRIS STATE UNDENY CHRIS STATE UNDENIABLE TRUTH. YOU TOLD -- TAPE BEING PLAYED. Reporter: STILL THE JURY WILL SOON BE ASKING ITSELF WHERE IS THE EVIDENCE OF SECOND DEGREE MURDER. DO YOU HAVE ANY EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT A CONTENTION THAT MR. ZIMMERMAN ACTED IN YOUR PRESENCE IN SUCH A WAY THAT HE THOUGHT HE HAD ILL WILL. NO HE DIDN'T EVIDENCE ANY OF THAT. Reporter: NO ILL WILL NO. HATRED. NO SPITE BOTH OFFICERS TESTIFIED TO THAT. THOSE BEING THE ELEMENT OF SECOND DEGREE MURDER SO EVEN THOUGH THE JURY HEARD A SHIFTY ZIMMERMAN TODAY, HEARD A SHIFTY ZIMMERMAN TODAY, THAT'S A GOOD WAY TO PUT IT IT DOESN'T IN ANY WAY PROOF THAT HE COMMITTED SECOND DEGREE MURDER. IT COULD AFFECT HOW THEY JUNE HIS CREDIBILITY IN ANYTHING HE SAYS IF HE TESTIFIES BUT AFTER SEEING TODAY THE INTERROGATION OF THAT VIDEO AND AUDIO WITH CHRISSY WOULD BE SURPRISED IF HE DOES. ALL RIGHT LET'S GO AHEAD AND BRING IN SOME ANALYSIS AS TO HOW WE THINK THE WITNESS PLAY TO THE JURY TODAY. TLT FIRST OFFICER TO SPEAK TO HIM, AGAIN, SEEMED TO BE ONE OF THOSE STATE WITNESSES THAT IN THE END ENDED UP HELPING GEORGE AS I REMEMBER MAN DEFENSE WOULD YOU AGREE. YES. SHE DEFINITELY HELPED ESTABLISH THAT HE WAS NOT IN ANY WAY BEINGE VASE I HAVE. HE WAS IN FACT A LITTLE REMORSE WAS IN FACT A LITTLE REMORSEFUL. YOU KNOW IN THE CONVERSATION AND EVEN THE FACT THAT HE DIDN'T KNOW THAT TRAYVON MARTIN WAS DEAD AT THE TIME THAT HE WAS BEING INTERVIEWED BY SINGLETON. KIND OF FACTS THAT ARE COMING TO LIGHT THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE WEREN'T AWARE OF YET STILL SUBJECTED HIMSELF TO MULTIPLE DAY AND ROUND OF QUESTIONING. IT'S ONE OF THE THINGS WHERE HIS STORY WAS CONSISTENT THROUGHOUT AND SHE EVEN SAID THERE WEREN'T REALLY ANY SIGNIFICANT INCONSISTENCY. LET'S LISTEN TO A VERY UNUSUAL EXCHANGE THAT HAPPENED DURING THE INTERVIEW THAT HE WAS THEN ASKED ABOUT LATER. HE ASKED ME IF I WAS CATHOLIC AND I SAID NO. I ASKED WHY HE ASKED ME. THAT BECAUSE HE NOTICED THE CROSS. I SAID NO. I SAID NO I'M CHRISTIAN. BASICALLY WHY DOES IT MATTER AND HE SAID BECAUSE IN HIS RELIGION IN THE CATHOLIC RELIGION NO MATTER WHAT ALWAYS WRONG TO KILL SOMEBODY. AND I SAID WELL, AS FAR AS WHAT YOU HAVE SAID TO ME IF WHAT YOU ARE SAYING IS TRUE THEN I DON'T THINK THAT'S WHAT GOD MEANT. I DON'T THINK GOD MEANT YOU CAN'T SAVE YOUR OWN LIFE. CHRIS LATER SAID THAT WAS ONE REASON WHY HE FELT THAT HE SHOULD BE ABLE TO TRY TO GET TO GEORGE IN A WAY BY SHOWING HE HAD COMPASSION. YES. THAT IS ONE OF THE KEY ELEMENTS. THEY ARE TALKING A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THIS FLAT EFFECT. ABOUT THE WAY THAT HE WAS. YOU KIND OF GET A LITTLE MORE INSIGHT AS TO KIND OF MAYBE THIS WAS JUST SHOCK FROM THE WHOLE INCIDENT MAYBE THIS IS TRAUMA THAT CHRIS ALLUDED TO PEOPLE HAVE NIGHTMARE AND ANXIETY BUT IN THAT MOMENT HE SHOWED HIS VULNERABILITY AND RELIGIOUS SIDE. MAYBE THAT PLAYED TO THE SYMPATHY OF THE JURY A LITTLE BIT. ALL RIGHT. WELL IT WILL BE INTERESTING TO SEE JUST HOW FAR O'MERA GOES IN CROSS EXAMINATION OF CHRIS AND REDIRECT. STILL SEEMS THEY HAVE NOT DONE A LIEUTENANT TO LINE UP ANY EVIDENCE THAT CAN REALLY KIND OF POINT THE FINGER AT ZIMMERMAN IN A SECOND DEGREE MURDER CHARGE. Reporter: REMEMBER THE STATE HAS TO DISPROVE SELF-DEFENSE. NOT ENOUGH TO PROVE MURDER, THEY HAVE TO DISPARAGRAPH SELF-DEFENSE NOW THAT ZIMMERMAN HAS BEEN ABLE TO GET THIS EVIDENCED IN THROUGH HIS PRIOR STATEMENT THANK YOU VERY MUCH. WE SEND IT BACK TO YOU IN THE STUDIO AND OF COURSE WE HAVE

SANFORD, Fla. -

Jurors in the George Zimmerman murder trial on Monday heard testimony and recordings of the neighborhood watch volunteer describing his fight with 17-year-old Trayvon Martin to police and how he feared for his life before he shot the teen.

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Zimmerman said in his first interview at the police station that he saw Martin walking through his neighborhood on a dark, rainy night while Zimmerman was driving to the grocery store. He told Officer Doris Singleton that he didn't recognize Martin and that there had been recent break-ins at his townhome complex.

"These guys always get away," Zimmerman told Singleton, a statement similar to one that prosecutors have used previously to try to show that Zimmerman was increasingly frustrated with the burglaries and his encounter with Martin was a breaking point.

Zimmerman told the police officer that he lost track of Martin and got out of his truck to look for a street name he could relay to police dispatcher. When the dispatcher suggested Zimmerman didn't need to follow Martin, Zimmerman started to head back to his vehicle. At that point, Zimmerman said Martin jumped out of some bushes, punched him and he fell to the ground.

Zimmerman said that Martin began hitting his head against the sidewalk as Zimmerman yelled for help and that Martin told him, "You're going to die tonight."

With Zimmerman's shirt and jacket pushed up during the struggle and his holstered gun now visible, he thought Martin was reaching for his firearm holstered around his waist. Zimmerman told the officer that he shot Martin and the teen said, "You got me."

In a written statement, Singleton read in court, Zimmerman refers to Martin as "the suspect." Singleton said it didn't appear that Zimmerman showed any anger when talking about the teen. Prosecutors must show that Zimmerman acted with ill will or a depraved mind in order to get a second-degree murder conviction.

The officer responded, "If what you're telling me is true, I don't think that what God meant was that you couldn't save your own life."

Zimmerman also acted surprised when Singleton told him Martin was dead.

"He's dead?!" Singleton recalled Zimmerman saying, before he lowered his head toward the table in the interrogation room.

Jurors also heard from the lead detective in the case, Officer Chris Serino, who asked him several pointed questions about whether the teenager could have felt threatened because Zimmerman was following him.

Earlier Monday, prosecutors called FBI audio expert Hirotaka Nakasone to focus on the issue of who was screaming for help on 911 calls during the confrontation. Jurors were played the 911 calls several times last week.

The recordings are crucial pieces of evidence because they could determine who the aggressor was in the confrontation. Martin's family contends it was the teen screaming, while Zimmerman's father has said it was his son.

Even though he was a pre-trial witness for the defense, prosecutors called Nakasone to set up later testimony from either the teen's mother or father that they believe it was their son yelling for help.

During his pre-trial testimony, Nakasone testified that there wasn't enough clear sound to determine whether Zimmerman or Martin was screaming on the best 911 sample, an assertion he repeated Monday.

The FBI expert said that it's easier for a person with a familiarity of a voice to identify it than someone who has never heard it previously. That is especially true if the recording is of a subject screaming and the person trying to identify the voice has heard the subject under similarly stressful circumstances previously, Nakasone said.

But under cross-examination by defense attorney Don West, Nakasone said there was a risk of increased listener bias if people trying to identify a voice are listening to a sample in a group, as Martin's parents did, rather than individually.

"There might be a risk of bias included in the end results," Nakasone said.

Nakasone's pretrial testimony, along with other defense experts, helped keep two prosecution audio experts from testifying. One prosecution expert ruled out that it was Zimmerman screaming on the 911 call and the other thought it was the teen.

Zimmerman has said he fatally shot the teen in February 2012 in self-defense as the Miami-area black teenager was banging his head into the concrete sidewalk behind the townhomes in a gated community.

Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. The state argued during its opening statement that Zimmerman profiled and followed Martin in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight.

Zimmerman has denied the confrontation had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and their supporters have claimed.

Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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